Saturday, 20 October 2012

Great Music Videos: Jewel, "Intuition"

Great Music Videos is
an ongoing feature in which I plan to write about music videos I feel are particularly
accomplished examples of an underappreciated art form.

I chose Jewel’s video for “Intuition” to kick off this
series because it’s a music video that’s as relevant in 2012 as it was when it
was released nine years ago. In the video, Jewel walks through a city that frequently
transforms itself into ads for products such as Sprite and Nike. This culminates
in a “real” music video where Jewel is sprayed by water from a fire hose while
accompanied by backup dancers, something not dissimilar in nature to what one would
find on MTV in the early ‘00s.

What’s remarkable, perhaps unsettling, about the video for
“Intuition” is that it’s progressed beyond its initial nature as satire to become
an astute commentary on the music videos of the past few years. Since Vevo’s
launch in 2009, it’s become clear that artists’ videos are as indebted to ads
and product placement as they ever were; that ubiquitous white logo in the bottom
right-hand corner of the screen is a constant reminder of this fact.

Some videos have incorporated product placement into
their narratives more cleverly than others. A great example is Jennifer Lopez’s
“On the Floor”, where the products displayed make perfect sense in context:
Lopez is going to a fancy party, so naturally she’d want to wear high-end
earrings and step out of a BMV.

(And yes, J.Lo’s “big butt is still boss”, if her recent
chart success and work as a judge on American
Idol are any indication.)

At the other end of the spectrum, we have Avril Lavigne’s music
video for “What the Hell”. From the opening shots of skateboards and Sony
televisions, it’s clear that the artist and director were not the only ones
that had a say in the final product.

As the video progresses, however, the
possibility emerges that Lavigne intended to make something as tongue-and-cheek
or self-aware as “Intuition” – after all, it’s Lavigne’s own perfume and label
that are featured. It’s unlikely that Jewel’s video was a point of reference,
but either way, “What the Hell” doesn’t have the necessary framework, given its earlier unnecessary product placements, to make an
“Intuition”-style statement.

‘Statement’ may not be the right word, though. The
genius of “Intuition” lies in the fact that, despite its highly satirical approach to advertising, it doesn’t really make an argument at all.